This review is specifically for the Exploring Your Experiences document provided by mbaMission. Applying to business school is ALLLL about knowing yourself, your strengths, your experiences and your goals. The document is long and requires a lot of time but after finishing it, it has been instrumental in both resume, essay writing, and even chats with alumni and adcoms. DO IT! You will thank yourself later. Lastly, Angela from mbaMission is AWESOME. She has a very warm and welcoming personally which makes it easy to share your experience. She will also be very candid and let you know what you should and should not do when applying. Her advice has really changed the way I approach the application for each school.

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Angela was by far the highlight of my Forte MBA Launch experience. She led several of the Forte webinars, and also led the Forte kick-off launch session in Houston, TX. I really enjoyed her personal branding session, where we engaged in practice around how to present ourselves in interviews. We practiced discussing successes and failures we had experienced. She pushed us to craft attention-grabbing, detailed, and nuanced descriptions of ourselves and let us know that now was the time to own our successes and failures. Beyond the Forte webinars and sessions, I also had a 30-minute phone consultation with her. At that point, I was unsure if an MBA was the right path for me, and she gave me individualized advice pertaining to my specific situation. After this conversation, I left with a better sense of what the right path for me was. Thank you for your advice, Angela!

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I was late to the application process and was applying to only one school 3rd round, shooting for the moon knowing the odds were against me. And I honestly don't think I would have gotten in without Melissa's help on my essays.

I had the "stories" of both of my essays down, but what Melissa helped me with was to consolidate and focus/expand on what I viewed as details in the story, but actually were distinguishing factors for who I am as a person and applicant, rather than the overall "story". Her point view coming directly from the seat of the AdCom is invaluable to be able to highlight these character qualities I would have glossed over, instead focusing on the overall story. For example, my original essay said: I tried new things. Melissa helped me to turn that into: swimming across shark infested beaches, traveled to several third world countries, and signed up for new running clubs. By reframing what I was trying to say and extracting these descriptive details she was able to highlight my passion for adventure, exploration, and fearlessness and show more of who I am and what I would bring to campus. She was able to extract at least three adjectives to describe me when my original sentence gave zero.

I know my essays would not have fully shown who I am as a person and what sets me apart from the rest of the application pool without Melissa's guidance and ability to more effectively demonstrate what I was trying to convey. I would recommend her to ANYONE for any part of the process and was actually excited to work with her the following year had I not gotten accepted!

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It seems like every single time I hit a wall in the application process - is my resume format okay? are my bullet points impressive enough? do my goals make sense? how do I even begin tackling these essays? - there was an mbaMission webinar session that gave real, non-cliche, productive advice. They were reading my mind. Not only did Angela expertly address the toughest questions but she also provided clear tools and methods for thinking through all of them. I walked away with a clear strategy and increased confidence. I highly recommend checking out the MBA bootcamp, including the Resume Protocol below. Thanks Angela!

http://careerprotocol.com/mba-resume/

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As a marketing and branding nerd, I've always been fairly well in tune with how I've conveyed my personal brand. My resume has always been up to date, LinkedIn on point, and I've worked on creating value for others through my strong network. Or so I thought...

After an hour long consultation with Angela on my resume, I realized just how much work I had ahead of me. Even in that short time, Angela was able to challenge my thinking and get me to see the benefits of truly starting to break down my resume and build it back up -- and as someone who is fairly headstrong, this is not an easy feat. She gave strategic advice on how to frame the resume and supported that feedback with some great tactics on how to ensure each bullet on the resume tells a story. I certainly saw the light by the end of the conversation!

Not only was this one-on-one advice incredibly helpful (my resume is in a MUCH better place), she has some ridiculously helpful documents to assist in the MBA process. The Explore Your Experiences document is something that has guided my entire MBA process and has even helped me realize area for personal + professional growth before even entering an MBA program. This document was a great thought starter, and I'm definitely referencing daily as I craft my essays now.

Finally - her essay advice was some of the most valuable guidance that I've received throughout the application process. She provides incredible guidance on how to ensure the essay conveys another facet of what makes a candidate a little more unique or interesting. Of the blogs, forums, webinars, I've seen so far - Angela's was far and away the most strategic, relevant, and insightful.

I honestly can't say enough about the support and guidance Angela has provided. She has an incredible knack for being able to challenge your thinking & assumptions, in the best way possible! I'm a huge fan and certainly grateful for the opportunity to learn from her!

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The advice I have gotten from Angela has been really monumental. I think the thing that different from other coaches is that her BS attitude that is not all snarky and uptight like other programs or coaches I have experienced.

The thing I appreciate most is that she really does help you present the best version of yourself. For me, I went into this "wanting help getting in" but really got the help I needed to actually know myself and my goals well enough to be ready for business school, so this really went beyond the application process for me.. Yes, it is about getting in, but that is almost a side impact of really truly knowing who you are, what you want to do, and how to convey that well, and Angela is really the best person to help you do that.

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Through the Forte MBA Launch program, I worked with Angela through a series of workshops - self-awareness, storytelling, MBA resume protocol, career game plan, and essay writing tips.

All her workshops have been very insightful and helpful. Time and time you will hear again that the MBA process is quite rewarding as you get to learn more about yourself. However, introspection is not easy. Angela made this challenge easier to tackle with her self-awareness workshop. If you use this effectively, it really will set the stage for our application process (post GMAT).

I walked away from each session with digestible and actionable information. I knew what steps I needed to take to use her advice. I found this as key because it's not easy transform all the advice into next steps, but Angela did a great job.

Before I engaged with Angela, I was set on my GMAT. One of my only worries has been essay writing (or storytelling as she'll tell you) and these workshops have given me a great tool kit to rely on.

The Boot Camp is a great way to kick start your application process and Angela's passion to truly help you will only enhance your journey.

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I attended these sessions through the Forte Foundation and found Angela's feedback and insight to be invaluable for the admissions process. She was honest and straightforward about perceptions and preparing your best possible application, while still managing to be encouraging.

Angela's exercises in reflection are not easy (notably: Exploring Your Experiences!) but they truly prepared me to think about the "hows", "whats ", and "whys" of getting a b-school education. The exercises have helped me not only to prepare my essays but to be more deliberate in my current role, seeking projects that will aid me in my goals.

I would recommend this program without reservation to anyone looking to maximize their odds of admissions OR for anyone who is unsure of their goals and their attainability.

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In summer 2015, I decided to hire MBA Mission’s Jessica Shklar to work with me to apply for top business schools in the U.S. Jessica really lived up to her reputation – she turned out to be the most professional, insightful & empowering coach I could imagine to guide me through the hectic application process.

In previous year, all the top schools I applied for dinged me. I was very insecure about my chances as an older Asian male who has never lived outside Asia. MBA Mission has a well-established process to make sure the consultants gain a holistic understanding of each applicant. On top of the process, Jessica is insightful – I felt that she immediately understood me, my stories & the vision I had to become the best possible version of myself. I started the application process only one month before the R2 deadline, but Jessica gave up her personal time to make sure I could meet all the deadlines. Some of my friends read the essays Jessica worked with me to develop - they were moved to tears.

In the end, I got offers from 4 very good business schools. Out of the offers, I decided to go to Austin with one year deferral.

From no offer to 4 offers – Jessica really made a difference for me and to me, she is much more than a consultant – she is more like a well-trusted mentor that any young professional would be lucky to have.

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I worked with Angela for MBA applications in R1&R2 2015. In R1 I chose Haas and Stanford. Those two schools are known for "hard to get interview schools", but I got both interview from them. Stanford is my dream school. It cannot work without Angela's help!
1. Choose school: Angela is not like other consultant that will say school A would be a stretch for you I will recommend you B, C... Angela never does that, she always say let's try that.
2. Essay and Resume: Angela is so patience to answer every question I had. I'm so impressed that she can remember every detailed aspect I mentioned to her so she would remind me to use those details when I wrote my essay. Angela cares my success not the service fee. When I started my R2 application, she offered me the help to read my essays for different schools without charging me additional fee. She also did a regular check to see whether she can help.
3. Interview: Angela provided great mock interview. With the recorded mock interview and the resources for specific schools I can practice a lot.
4. Waitlist experience: I was unfortunately on two schools WL , but Angela remained optimistic and helped me navigate the waitlist process. Finally I got in both waitlist and got another offer.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Angela and I will go to Sloan this fall. Highly recommend Angela Guido if you need a MBA consultant or a friend to talk about your career goals.

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